The Climate Stress Lab is a research group led by Professor Martin Holmstrup and Associate professor Stine Slotsbo.
The research group investigates the ecophysiology and ecotoxicology of terrestrial invertebrates, with a focus on climatic and chemical stress adaptation. The group's research aims to understand the physiological and molecular mechanisms behind stress adaptations in a variety of ectothermic invertebrates, including earthworms, enchytraeids, collembolans, mites and slugs.
The research helps us to understand how terrestrial invertebrates respond to climate change and other environmental stressors. A knowledge essential for developing conservation strategies and mitigating the negative impacts of human activity on soil ecosystems.
The research group is also collaborating with industry to develop innovative solutions for a greener and more sustainable future.
Climate Stress Lab have been on a field trip at Mols to collect springtails for drought experiments. On the branches of mulberry bushes, we found several hundred cosmopolitan springtails Entomobrya nivalis.
The Climatic Stress Lab formally collaborates with Université de Rennes1 from 2019-2023 med through a LIA grant (Laboratoire International Associé).
Resistance and recovery of springtail populations exposed to extreme heat events are explained by thermal effects on life-history traits. Link to the paper here
Super antifreeze in cells: The ability to survive in ice and snow developed in animals far earlier than we thought. Read about it here
Our climatic stress impact research on springtail community metabolism in the CLIMAITE and ForHot projects is represented in this synthesis paper driven by Anton Potapov (iDiv). Link to paper.
Getting closer to understanding why high temperature interacts with toxicity of contaminants – see our new paper in Chemosphere
Wencai Dai defended his PhD on the 31st of May. Congrats to Wencai with his PHD degree and his employment as a researcher at the College of Resources and Environment, Southwest University, China, where he will continue his work on multiple stressors (natural stressors and chemicals) on soil invertebrates.
